ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 16, 1996 TAG: 9603180123
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
A 52-year-old man told a judge Friday that he was drunk when he tried to carjack a woman as she left a restaurant in downtown Roanoke last fall.
Robert D. Matthews pleaded no contest to the charge in Roanoke Circuit Court. He will be sentenced later, and faces up to 10 years in prison.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Phillips said the incident happened about 3 p.m. Nov. 22, when Andrea Lambert left a restaurant on the Roanoke City Market and walked to her car in a parking lot on Salem Avenue.
Lambert testified that Matthews grabbed her as she was getting into the car and dragged her out, cursing at her. An unidentified man foiled the attack, but left quickly as Matthews also fled.
Lambert got back into her car and drove to the Police Department, where she gave a description of her attacker. Matthews was arrested a short time later in Southeast Roanoke.
"I was intoxicated at the time," he told Judge Robert P. Doherty on Friday. "I had no intention to try to take this lady's car."
LENGTH: Short : 28 linesby CNB